Class 11

Welcome to Class 11

Class Teachers: Mrs V Dunning & Mrs R Sturman

This page contains information, news, class newsletters and photos of interesting activities.

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Previous Posts

13th March

Class 11 had a fantastic visit this week to Lotherton Hall. We were transported back in time to the start of World War 2 when Operation Pied Piper was announced. We spent the day as evacuees learning how to help treat wounded soldiers, send secret messages via Morse Code and help turn the house into a hospital for the soldiers. We also experienced an air raid where we had to hide in the chapel and sing songs to keep our spirits up!! It was an amazing day and we all knew what it felt like to be an evacuee.

London Trip - Day 3

We had a brilliant time at Buckingham Palace watching the changing of the guard. We’re sure the Queen was looking at us from an upstairs window.  
Then we visited the Churchill War Rooms. They were underground and Churchill and his War Cabinet made all the decisions about WW2 from inside them. They used used from 1940 until the end of the war. 

London - Day 2

We thought the Lion King was brilliant last night. The theatre was massive and we couldn’t believe how good the animal costumes were. The giraffes were people but they had really long legs. We thought it was very dramatic when Scar killed Mufasa because it looked like he really fell into a herd of buffalo. Everyone loved the songs too.

Today we have really enjoyed exploring in the Science Museum. Miss Callaby’s group loved testing out the different experiments. Mrs Meston’s group enjoyed the different slides. Miss Warren learned how a pulley works by moving herself up and down on a chair. Mrs  Dunning took lots of photos to use back at school.

We have seen London from above now because we have all been on the London Eye. We loved looking down and spotting the different landmarks we have learned to recognise in this busy city. We can’t wait to tell you about everything we have been doing. 

London - Day 1

We arrived in London and drove straight to the River Thames to find the HMS Belfast warship. It was used in WW2 and now it is a museum to show everyone what it was like being a sailor in the war. We went up and down ladders to see the guns, the engine room and loads more. Then we drove to the hotel. It has just been redecorated so our rooms are so smart. We can’t wait to sleep in them!  We are looking forward to seeing the Lion King first though. We will let you know what it is like in our next blog. 

14th January

Class 11 used their work on Goodnight Mr Tom to start writing a Blitz story based on the text. They worked very hard and wrote some very effective openings to the story which we have enjoyed reading aloud and sharing with the rest of the class. This week, the children started to investigate propaganda posters in order to find out about the role of women in the war. They worked in groups to research the role of men and women before war broke out and then looked at how this changed. Once they had analysed a range of different propaganda posters, they designed one of their own for an area of women’s war work of their choice. They are looking forward to completing them after half term. In PSHE, the children took part in a Mind Mate lesson where they thought unhealthy relationships and steps they can take to counter these. 

7th February

Class 11 were excited to start their narrative reading unit this week. We have very much enjoyed reading the text, ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’ and explored some of the themes through drama activities. The children have shown great understanding of the story and made excellent inferences and predictions about the characters and events. They are looking forward to continuing this work next week! In history, they started to create their own outcome to answer their question about the effects of rationing.  

31st January

This week, Class 11 applied what they had learned about explanation texts to write one independently. They worked extremely hard and produced some very good explanations. As part of their history work, the children started to investigate a wider range of sources to answer one of their key questions about rationing. They were surprised to discover that some children had never seen a banana or orange if they grew up during the rationing period! 

24th January

This week, the children finished writing their explanation text and created neat final drafts for their TSU books. In Maths, the class have been working hard at improving their arithmetic skills and have spent the week looking at fractions, decimals and percentages. In history, they used maps and globes to identify the Allies and Axis powers and researched who the leaders of each country were. 

17th January

In English, the children have been learning about explanation texts. They have started to write a text of their own linked to their history work explaining how to stay safe during the war. In PE, they have started a new gymnastics unit and worked really well recapping previous rolls and balances. In history, the children used a variety of different sources to examine to causes of the Second World War.

10th January 

Class 11 returned after the Christmas break and had a very productive first week back. They started their new topic World War Two. As part of their history work, they took part in a pre-launch session where they recapped their prior learning to gather their understanding about what the world and Britain was like before the outbreak of war. Next, they enjoyed an exciting launch lesson where they generated questions they would like to answer throughout their history sessions. 

29th November

This week Class 11 drafted a fantastic first person narrative from the perspective of Bill Sikes. They created a narrative exploring the point in the story where Oliver is taken to commit a robbery by Bill in order to bind him to a life of crime. They worked really hard at including figurative language, fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases and relative clauses into their story.

In maths, the children have been investigating irregular shapes, perimeter and area. They used their reasoning and problem solving skills to explore lots of tasks.

In PE, the Northern Ballet session moved into the performance stage. Keisha was extremely impressed by the choreography the children were able to create as they explored the story of Cinderella through dance.

8th November

Class 11 returned to school after the half term break ready and raring to go!

Our ballet session this week was the first one accompanied by a pianist as we have started our creative stage of the programme. The children enjoyed choreographing a short sequence of moves to music based around some work they did playing with a feather. Keisha from the Northern Ballet Company was very impressed!

On Tuesday, Class 11 visited Abbey House museum to take part in an artefact handling session exploring what life was like in Leeds over 100 years ago. The historian Jill guided the children through the major changes in Leeds during the Victorian period. They got to handle various Victorian objects and use role play to explore different aspects of life. They used a peggy tub and posser to do the washing, made toast using a fork on the range and visited the grocer to have their shopping weighed out and paid using real Victorian coins. The children also enjoyed exploring the Victorian street and shops. In particular, they enjoyed visiting the Hark to Rover Inn and the Sunday School! 

25th October

The final week of the half term has been a very busy one, as usual!

The class took part in their ballet workshop on Monday practising their mindfulness and warm up routine. They are very much looking forward to starting the creative stage of the programme after half term when Keisha will be bringing a pianist into school to accompany the sessions.

In English, we have been putting our debating skills learnt with Mrs O'Sullivan to the test and writing a persuasive speech to try convince our audience to abolish workhouses. The pupils have written a very strong and emotive speech so far using a wide range of different features they have used in Mrs O' Sullivan's sessions.

On Wednesday, year 5 joined year 6 to showcase their learning about famous Black Victorians for our Black History Month assembly. Class 11 shared their acrostic and Kenning poems about Mary Seacole, Arthur Wharton and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. They sang the song, 'I'd like to Teach the World to Sing'. 

18th October

In DT this week, we enjoyed tasting a variety of different vegetarian meals. After some initial hesitation, they proved to be very tasty and popular with Class 11! We cannot wait to use the ideas to help refine our dishes and are looking forward to making them after half term.

On Tuesday we had a fantastic visit to the Industrial Museum. We spent the day in role as poor Victorian children to experience what life was like in Victorian Leeds. The Victorian school room workshop was very interesting as the teacher was extremely strict. The children took part in a typical day and learned the three R's, used ink and dip pens to complete handwriting in a copybook, did drill exercises in the yard and completed an object lesson. In the afternoon, they were sent to work in the mill and discovered just how hard life was for working children. They were shocked to discover the dangerous jobs and dirty conditions they endured. It was a brilliant visit and really enhanced the children's understanding of the period.

Class 11 also had their final debating session with Mrs O'Sullivan this week where they took part in practise debates ready for the competition after half term 

11th October

This week Class 11 started their DT project linked to the Victorian topic. We researched the diet of poor Victorians and discovered that they had to live off a very limited diet of seasonal produce as they had very low incomes and large families to feed! We worked together to create a class design brief to design and make a Victorian inspired dish using seasonal produce that would feed a family of seven all while keeping to a strict budget! We are looking forward to testing a range of different vegetarian meals next week in order to help develop our own dishes.

In guided reading, we have started to learn about two significant Victorian figures. We read various non-fiction texts about Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale and discovered they both had a lot in common. We will use this work on Mary Seacole as a basis for our Black History Work over the coming weeks.

On Tuesday the children thoroughly enjoyed participating in a Judo session. The class worked in pairs and were guided through a fun and fast paced warm up session before watching and practising different Judo skills with the instructor Dan. He was very impressed with how well the children engaged with the session and how carefully they followed his instructions. 

4th October

This week Class 11 enjoyed their first session with Keisha from the Northern Ballet Company. She guided the class through a mindfulness activity then we learned how to do a series of ballet moves which will form the warm up to each session. The children learned how to stretch, travel, move, turn and do plies to music. They worked individually and with a partner. Everyone was very engaged throughout the session and we are looking forward to session 2 next week!

In history, the children learned about the expansion of the British empire during the Victorian period. They used maps to locate the countries and researched when they became part of the empire and why.

Wednesday was our annual 'No Pens Wednesday' where we welcomed parents into school to join us in a range of exciting speaking and listening activities. Throughout the morning the children practised these skills by playing different maths games in the classroom. Class 11's competitive streak was evident as they battled against each other to win multiplication and division based games! Mrs Shaw and Mrs Giles led team building and trust exercises in the hall where the pupils had to rely on their communication skills to successfully complete different tasks. We particularly enjoyed the range of sports activities led by Tom and Mr Walton on the playground.
 

20th September

In English this week, Class 11 compared the film version of Oliver to the classic novel. They then began to investigate the features of play scripts and planned how to turn a chapter of the story into a film script. They are looking forward to writing their own play scripts of the scene where Oliver meets Fagin for the first time next week.

In maths, the children had a very successful week using the column method for addition and subtraction of more than 4 digits and used rounding for approximating and estimating. They then applied these skills to different reasoning and problem solving activities.

During their history sessions, the class used a variety of different sources to research Queen Victoria and her reign. They focussed on what she did during her time as queen and if she was a good queen as these were questions they generated during the launch session.

Another busy week where the children have impressed Mrs Sturman and Mrs Dunning with their hard work and positive attitudes to learning! 

14th September

Another busy and productive week for Class 11! In English, the children used more drama techniques to describe a situation from the point of view of another character. They used freeze frames and thought tracking to explore the fight scene between Oliver and Noah. They also made predictions about what might happen to Oliver next from details stated and implied.

In Maths this week, Class 11 continued to look at place value in numbers up to one million by ordering and comparing them and used their knowledge of Roman Numerals to write dates. They are working hard on their arithmetic skills too!

On Tuesday afternoon the children took part in an exciting launch session to begin their history work. After an initial investigation of various sources, they were able to formulate a range of questions about the Victorians to research during  their history lessons.

We also met with Keisha from the Northern Ballet to learn a little bit more about a fantastic project that we will be starting very soon!

7th September

Class 11 have settled back into school very quickly after the summer holidays and were soon familiar with their new classroom, teachers and routines. Mrs Sturman and Mrs Dunning have been very impressed with their sensible attitudes and enthusiastic approach to learning.

We started the week off with an exciting Street Dance session led by the Leeds Rhinos where we learned a short sequence of dance moves. The class then had a boys versus girls dance off. The coach Nicola was very impressed with their moves!

As part of our topic, The Victorians, Class 11 started to read the classic novel 'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens.  They used drama techniques such as freeze frames and conscience alley to explore the thoughts and feelings of the characters at key points in the story.

In maths, the children have been doing lots of place value activities exploring numbers up to 1 million. They also looked at how to write dates using Roman numerals.

Next week, the children will take part in an exciting launch lesson for their history work.